A routine traffic stop led to the arrest of a man police say is international fugitive Kai-Guo Hang, wanted for murder and dismemberment in a 1998 Philadelphia crime.

What began as a routine traffic stop has led to the arrest of an international fugitive wanted in a grisly U.S. murder and dismemberment more than a decade old.

According to Toronto police, officers pulled a man over on Aug. 7 near Finch Ave. East and McCowan Rd., in the city’s northeast end. After the scent of alcohol was detected on the driver’s breath, the man, who identified himself as Yu Chen, 30, was given a breathalyzer, police spokeswoman Const. Wendy Drummond said Monday.

Police then arrested Chen for driving over the legal blood-alcohol limit, and he was fingerprinted and released with a promise to appear at a future court date.

“In the interim, those fingerprints were processed,” said Drummond, adding that once they came back, they matched the fingerprints of 35-year-old Kai-Guo Huang, wanted in Philadelphia for the 14-year-old murder and dismemberment of Hoi Yang, 28.

On Friday, Toronto police, assisted by the Philadelphia Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service, FBI and Canada Border Service Agency, arrested Huang, who is wanted in the state of Pennsylvania for murder, conspiracy, possession of an instrument of crime and abuse of a corpse.

Huang has yet to be tried in court.

Tanya Little, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia police, said the crime took place in the basement of a restaurant in Philadelphia’s Chinatown district, in the early hours of July 27, 1998.

Police allege that Huang, who was in the company of his brother, stabbed and beheaded Yang.

Little said the victim’s torso was recovered from a dumpster in Pemberton Township, N.J., and his head was found in another dumpster about 400 metres away. “We identified the victim through fingerprints,” she said.

A Philadelphia Inquirer article from August 1998 paints a gruesome scene of a blood-splattered basement, where police reportedly found seven bloodied butcher knives and a meat cleaver.

Philadelphia police could not confirm those details Monday, but did say they believe Huang and his brother either worked at or owned the restaurant. His brother, also charged in Yang’s murder, has not yet been apprehended, said Philadelphia police Lt. Ray Evers on Monday.

What’s unclear is just how long Huang — a.k.a. Chen — has been living in Toronto. “That’s something that will come out with the investigation,” said Drummond.

There was no answer Monday at a Scarborough address that appears on court documents linked to Yu Chen’s drunken driving charge. Property records connected to that same address show the unit was bought in 2010 by a Yu Chen who was born 1982.